Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.

Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.

The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.

If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

The Week in Entertainment

DVD: A few episodes from an old British sit-com called It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which is pretty funny, though dated. (I could do without the laugh track, but that's always true.)

TV: Modern Family Phil lives his life in a sort of low-grade terror all the time, doesn't he? It's funny to watch, but I feel sorry for him. And with The Middle also giving us a leap-year birthday, it was kind of interesting to watch the different takes. At least Sue wasn't in the "I'm only four!" mode Cam was in... Grimm - here's a thought for you, Nick. Instead of taking the cursed coins and putting them in a box behind another box in your trailer, why don't you ... I don't know ... melt them down? Seriously. Why doesn't anybody ever destroy the evil artifact instead of trying to guard it for generations? I finally caught Hugo on demand ... I'm not sure if I wish I'd seen it in a theater in 3-D or not, because frankly I found it pretty boring and predictable. Sasha Baron Cohen's proved to be the most interesting character in the whole thing, which was not at all what I'd expected from his first sustained moments. In a theater, with all the bells and whistles, I might have been more impressed - or more annoyed, I don't know. Also saw The Gay Divorcee again. Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, and the vastly underrated Erik Rhodes really kick this movie way up in the Astaire/Rogers oeuvre, in my opinion. The cameo by Betty Grable is cute - though seriously, even back then you were supposed to get a giggle out of Horton's costume, surely??? I'm telling you, it took some nerve to dance in that.

Read: Awakening by SJ Bolton - a fast, entertaining read. Washington's Crossing, not fast but definitely entertaining. I'm caught by the image of 17,000 British and Hessian infantry crossing Long Island on a hot August night, making their way along country roads and lanes undetected. I can't begin to imagine how long it would have taken them to pass a given point...

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About Me

I teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I've recently started birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community... One more thing: this blog and the opinions on it are mine, and don't represent any institution or employer... probably very much so don't.

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You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language.

After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door...

It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined.
Mark Morford